According to the balance released on the afternoon of May 30, at least 91 people died as a result of the rains that fell in the Recife metropolitan region since May 28. However, there are still dozens of missing, buried or washed away by the force of the waters. Residents share videos recorded during the tragedy, when many saw their neighbors’ houses being destroyed in a few seconds.
The number of videos circulating on social networks continues to grow. In one of them, a young woman films, through a window, the hill behind her house when an avalanche swallows the houses located a few meters away. She desperate, she screams, without leaving the place, while at least three houses disappear under the mud in a few seconds.
Other neighbors, in neighborhoods located in flatter areas, immortalize from their balconies the moment when their streets become rivers that drag cars and everything in their path. In some images it is possible to see men and women with the water up to their knees or waists, trying to cross the streets.
The images are not unprecedented, as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro recalled. “We had similar problems in Petrópolis, the south of Bahia and the north of Minas. I was also in Acre last year. Unfortunately, these catastrophes happen, a continental country has its problems,” said the head of state.
“I also tried to land, but the pilots’ recommendation was that, given the inconsistency of the terrain, we could have an incident. So we decided not to land,” Bolsonaro said at a press conference with a delegation of ministers in Recife.